Preventing coronary heart disease
COOPER AEROBICS – HEALTH & WELLNESS
Indulge in Hobbies That Are Active and Fun
My dad said if he were the President of the United States he would advocate laws requiring all people who work sitting down to spend an equal amount of time in keeping physically fit by brisk walking, etc. Also TV or computer addicts would be required to spend an hour in brisk walking for every hour they sit before a screen.
We would like to start a healthy-heart crusade against inactivity, long sitting and sedentary activities. Long sitting slows down circulation and when that happens many changes take place in the artery walls. You must keep active! When you relax, relax actively. Cultivate hobbies that give you needed exercise that you can enjoy such as hiking, swimming, tennis, golf, etc. You can’t build a strong heart unless you exercise, walk briskly, bend, twist, vibrate your body, which promotes healthy overall body circulation. Stagnation breeds disease.
Avoid Constricting Clothes and Shoes
Anything that impedes blood circulation damages the heart and its arterial and vascular systems. Therefore, wear no constricting under garments – this includes tight bras, belts, collars, ties and above all, tight shoes.
Tight shoes can do more to disturb the circulation than any other article of clothing because the feet must always be well supplied with blood. There are 26 bones in each foot – more than in any other part of the body. When the blood does not reach the feet in the required quantities, toxins are retained in the cell structures of the feet. That is why so many people’s feet have an unpleasant odor – they need to detoxify their body.
Many conditions of stiffness and deformities are brought on by ill-fitting shoes that cause poor circulation and incorrect posture when walking and standing. Only wear comfortable, practical shoes that don’t bind or inhibit the free circulation of the blood to the feet.
* Read Dressed to Kill, by Sydney Singer, on breast cancer and bra studies.
Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you’re going and why. – Eddie Cantor
Exercise Helps Build Better Circulation
To Your Feet, Hands and Whole Body
Walking barefoot is the ideal way to walk. Each time we remove our shoes and walk barefoot is an opportunity to improve our circulation and walk toward more fitness for our heart. Walking on the grass, walking on the sand, earth or simply walking barefoot around the house improves circulation and helps strengthen the heart.
The heart must pump blood to the legs and feet, as well as to the arms and hands. Most people do not have sufficient rhythmic circulation to these extremities. That is why so many people complain of cold or numb feet, legs that go to sleep easily and arms and hands that become cold and numb. Here is a hydrotherapeutic water method that alleviates these conditions:
Cold and Hot Water Circulation Therapy:
Get 2 small foot tubs or wash tubs. Fill one with hot water – about 104° or as hot as you can stand. Fill the other with cold water, preferably with ice cubes added. Now for 2 minutes put your feet in the hot water and your entire lower arms (hands to elbows) submerged in the cold water. After 2 minutes reverse the procedure – put your feet in the cold water, your arms and hands in the hot water for another 2 minute period. Repeat this cycle 5 times, then take a coarse cotton towel and rub your feet, arms and hands vigorously until they are warm and glowing with tingling, healthy circulation.
Here’s another super therapy to stimulate circulation in the feet. Sit on a chair next to a bathtub with feet dangling over the tub; turn on a strong flow of water and for 5 minutes, alternate hot and cold water over your feet. Finish up with coarse towel rub and massage.
Exercise Gives Huge Benefits for the Prevention of Heart Disease and also:
1. Tones muscles
2. Improves circulation
3. Lowers cholesterol
4. Chases Depression
5. Eases stress
6. Stimulates internal organs
7. Improves sex
8. Promotes sound sleep
9. Helps you think better
10. Promotes deep breathing
Great Framingham 50 Year Heart Study
In 1948 in Framingham, Massachusetts, 2,336 men and 2,873 women were recruited into a landmark study, the Framingham Heart Study. This ongoing study is still the source of much of our present understanding of heart disease and stroke. The original study group of 1948 and the succeeding generation of Framingham residents have been followed throughout their lives. Everyone has been interviewed and examined every 2 years for over 50 years. This massive pioneer medical research continues today.
In 1971, the original Framingham subjects were joined by 5,135 of their children. The researchers were pleased to find a 43% reduction in coronary heart disease death from the 1948 group. Our favorite – The New England Journal of Medicine says the increasing heart-health of Framingham’s 1970s test group is primarily the result of the lifestyle improvements (cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking factors) that so harmed the early 1950s group.
Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s China Project
In another landmark study, the China Project, written by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, the effects of nearly 50 disease categories on rural and urban counties (in US and China) were observed for 20 years. Results showed that populations using a diet richer in animal products and higher in total fat were much more afflicted with chronic degenerative diseases (cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, etc.). The Chinese diet contains from 0 to 20% animal-based foods, while the affluent American diet, sad to say, is comprised of 50 to 70%. What’s worse, far more Americans are clinically obese, even though the Chinese consume 30% more total calories! Another astonishing fact is that China’s high cholesterol levels are almost equal to the U.S.’s low!
What these 2 ambitious studies have to say about maintaining cardiovascular health is eat a natural diet low in cholesterol, fats, sugars and salts, etc.; exercise regularly, fast and don’t smoke.
Iron-Pumping Oldsters (ages 86 to 96) Triple Their Muscle Strength In Landmark U.S. Government Study
WASHINGTON, June 13, 1990 – Ageing nursing home residents in Boston pumping iron? Elderly weightlifters tripling and quadrupling their muscle strength? Is it possible? Most people would doubt and wonder at this amazing revelation!
Yet government experts on ageing answered those questions with a resounding yes according to results of a new study. They turned a group of frail Boston nursing home residents, aged 86 to 96, into weightlifters to demonstrate that it’s never too late to reverse age-related declines in muscle strength. The study group participated in a regime of high-intensity weight-training in research conducted by the Agriculture Departments Human Research Center of Ageing at Tufts University in Boston. A high-intensity weight training program is capable of inducing dramatic increases in muscle strength in frail men and women up to 96 years of age, reported Dr. Maria A. Fiatarone, who was the Study Director.
Amazing Health & Fitness Results in 8 Weeks
The favorable response to strength training in these subjects was remarkable in light of their very advanced age, extremely sedentary habits, many chronic diseases, functional disabilities and nutritional inadequacies.
Despite their many handicaps, the elderly weight lifters increased their muscle strength by 3 to 4 times as much in as little as 8 weeks. Fiatarone said they probably were stronger at the end of the program than they had been in years!
Fiatarone and her associates emphasized the safety of such a closely supervised weight lifting program, even among people in frail health. The average age of the 10 participants was 90. Six had coronary heart disease, 7 had arthritis, 6 had bone fractures resulting from osteoporosis, 4 had high blood pressure, and all had been physically inactive for years. Yet no serious medical problems resulted from this program. A few of the participants did report minor muscle and joint aches, but 9 of the 10 still completed the program. One man, aged 86, felt a pulling sensation at the site of a previous hernia incision and dropped out after 4 weeks.
The study participants, drawn from a 712 bed long-term care facility in Boston, worked out 3 times a week during the study. They performed 3 sets of 8 repetitions with each leg on a weight lifting machine. The weights were gradually increased from 10 pounds to about 40 pounds at the end of the 8 week program.
Fiatarone said the study carries potentially important implications for older people, who represent a growing proportion of the population. A decline in muscle strength and size is one of the more predictable features of ageing. Muscle strength in the average adult decreases by 30% to 50% during the course of a lifetime. Experts on ageing do not know whether the decrease is an unavoidable consequence of ageing, or results mainly from sedentary lifestyle and other controllable factors.
Exercise, along with some fasting helps maintain or restore a healthy physical balance and normal weight for a long, happy life.
Muscle atrophy and weakness is not merely a cosmetic problem in elderly people, especially the frail elderly. Researchers have linked muscle weakness with recurrent falls, which is a major cause of immobility and death with the American elderly. This is costing the United States billions of dollars yearly in staggering medical fees.
Previous studies have suggested that weight training can be helpful in reversing age-related muscle weakness. But Fiatarone said physicians have been reluctant to recommend weight lifting for frail elderly patients with multiple health problems. The government study might help to change their minds. Also, this study shows the great importance of keeping the 640 body muscles as active and fit as possible to maintain general good physical fitness and also good heart and body health.
20 Year Study Shows Being Fit Saves Money
The average American spends over $7,000 on health care yearly, and costs are rising. This revealing 20 year study done by Dr. Ted Mitchell of The Cooper Clinic in Texas monitored 6,679 men. Results showed those who exercised more, required fewer doctor visits. Being fit cuts yearly medical expenses 25 to 60%. Study also found all you need to stay fit is to exercise just 20 to 30 minutes a day, four or five days a week. Physically fit people live longer and enjoy a better quality of life!
Miracle of Fasting:
Dr. Nikolayev, Director of a famous European fasting clinic, often quotes an old German proverb: “The illness that can’t be cured by fasting can’t be cured by anything else.” Fasting permits the miracle cleansing and healing powers of the body and of the mind to assert themselves.
Dr. Nikolayev – who fasts several times a year in 7, 10 to 15 day stretches stated, “I usually fast for prophylactic reasons. I have fasted several times with a scientific purpose in view, to make an experiment. I always feel excellent when I fast. It is always a happy, restful occasion.”
Dr. Nikolayev discovered that his patients responded to fasting treatment after all other forms of therapy had failed. The patients had been chronically ill and felt hopeless about their future! Most of them would never have functioned again. Fasting gave them a new fresh lease on life.
Allan Cott, M.D. noted in his book – Fasting, The Ultimate Diet that “75% of patients treated by fasting improved so remarkably that they were able to resume an active life!”
